SETA (Search for Extraterrestrial Artifacts)

Theory and attempts to find and detect the handiwork of extraterrestrial
intelligence within the solar system. The term was coined by Robert Freitas
and Francisco Valdes in the early 1980s and
applied initially to the search for extraterrestrial
probes, although the search for probes has more recently tended to be
called SETV (Search for Extraterrestrial Visitation).
SETA also includes the search for possible remains and relicts of extraterrestrial
intelligence on the surface of planets and moons (see artifacts,
alien). Significant contributors to this field, which has also been
called exoarchaeology or xenoarchaeology, include Alexey Arkhipov
and Mark Carlotto. Another branch of SETA, which focuses on possible past
interaction between extraterrestrials and humans, has become known as the
paleocontact hypothesis. Although SETA
is really a subdivision of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence), it has generally, and for no particularly good reason, been
considered to fall outside mainstream activities in this field. A contributing
factor to this exclusion from traditional SETI is the extensive fringe speculation,
shading into pseudoscience and pseudohistory, that has built up around SETA.

A list of references for both SETA and SETV is given in the SETV entry.